Weather - very overcast, but mild. Birds seen - 2 Scaup (ist view one was standing on land, tail to hide, preening), shelduck, mallard, teal, reed bunting, black-tailed godwit (changing into summer plumage), black headed gull, carrion crow, chaffinch, wigeon, lapwing, herring gull, oystercatcher, lesser black backed gull, iceland gull, curlew, common gull, coot, moorhen, magpie, starling, linnet, redshank, shoveller, golden plover, ruff, glaucous gull, jackdaw.
Approaches - skylark, magpie.
Causeway (salt water) - black-headed gull, oystercatchers, whimbrel.
Weather - heavy showers with sun in between, strong NE wind.
Pondage - very high water level (fresh water).
Hide - birds all at a distance - mallard (on wing), wigeon, pochard, shoveller, cormorant, black-headed gull, tufted duck, mute swan, pair goldeneye (sun catching white of drake, tried to photograph but too far away), grey heron, rooks, jackdaws.
Near yacht club - blackheaded gull, herring gull, lesser black backed gull
Activity at the feeder in the front garden is picking up again - house sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches, dunnocks, carrion crows and jackdaws. Still no sign of the wren or the song thrush. I hope they come back. Exciting moments yesterday - a goldcrest in the tall pine tree. Lovely views in the sun. In my previous garden I had one sighting of a goldcrest - came in with a flock of mixed tits.
Well the builders have almost finished, and are taking a break to wait for various bits and pieces to come into stock. The birds have all sighed in relief and the garden is busier, not more numbers at any one time, but more birds about all day rather than for short periods. I think the collared doves have given up on trying to build a nest in the tall pine tree, too much disturbance. I'm going to try and put up a couple of nest boxes tomorrow. It's probably too late for this year, but never mind. 3 long-tailed tits skipped through yesterday. Didn't appear to try any of the feeders.
I've set up the bird table again in the front garden. Just one visitor so far, a jackdaw!
I managed to take a reasonable photo of a goldfinch, and another of 2 collared doves, but I am still waiting on some new PCV equipment before uploading them.
The garden was quite quiet this week. Too much disturbance by the builders. However one or two goldfinches were in every day. They were looking well in the sunshine. I've nesting material hanging up, but whilst I could see the birds had been at it, today was the first I actually saw a bird taking some - a greenfinch that seemed to come back a number of times.
It's very rare now that I see both blackbirds together. I think they have a nest next door.
Early afternoon today 8 jackdaws descended on the front garden. They all foraged under the beech hedge for a couple of minutes and flew away together. I've no idea what they were looking for.
I spent some time today looking at the various markings on the different male sparrows. Interesting the colour variations. One had brilliant white cheeks - even in the shade it looked beautiful.
Up to now my comments have been confined to birdwatching in my garden as I am recovering from a broken leg. However thanks to some very good friends I was able to get out and about on Friday and Saturday.
This was a lovely end to a week that had started full of frustrations. I moved house in August and since then I have been unable to get my printer to work. Despite the help of some computer boffin friends, and replacement printer cables, the printer has remained silent. I decided to treat myself to a new printer, and as I was also investing in a digital camera I decided to buy a printer which would print from a memory card as well as from the computer. The new printer arrived, a new USB cable was purchased and despite installing and uninstalling the software numerous times the printer would not work. Some long conversations ensued with the printer help line, all to no avail. The problem appears to be a processor/hard drive problem, and I now have to decide the best way forward.
The digital camera arrived. The printer is printing from the memory card, and the PC is downloading the photos from the computer. I've been experimenting, and will try and download a couple of photos of Friday's outing. I've already tried this twice and lost the entry. As I'm sure you have gathered by now I'm not very technically minded!
On Friday we headed to the RSPB reserve in the Belfast Harbour Industrial Estate. It is a small reserve, based around a fresh water pool, in the middle of the busy Belfast docklands and with parking close by. There are 2 small man made islands, which in the summer are home to a common tern colony. Friday was a lovely bright, sunny day, but very cold, with a biting north wind. Part of the water was frozen over. We were at the reserve at low tide.
Rarities consisted of a ruff, which had apparently over wintered, and a 1st year Iceland gull. Large numbers of wigeon, shelduck and a variety of gulls were present. Other species spotted were reed buntings, blackbird, cormorant, moorhen, both carrion and hooded crows, curlew, black-tailed godwits, dunnock, redshank, magpie, mallard, pochard and blue-tit. However, the most spectacular were the teal. Now I appreciate that teal are quite common, but on Friday they were close to the hide. The sun was catching the colours of the drakes beautifully, and I have never seen the speculum of the females highlighted so well. On leaving the reserve we saw goldfinch, oystercatchers and curlew.
On Saturday other friends took me along the Ards Peninsular shore of Strangford Lough. The tide was coming in, and we had good views of shelduck, redshank, oystercatchers, mute swans, dunlin, knot, ringed plover, brent geese, curlew, and black-headed and herring gulls. As well as brent geese feeding on the shore line a one stage a flock of around 500 flew over our heads, circled back over the Lough and landed just out of sight.
Two very good days!